Extreme Sport???

They say a journey of a 1 000 miles begins with one step. What they don’t realize though is that a journey that FEELS like a 1 000 miles begins with one watermelon!



We were on the scooter, swinging by the Fruit Shop to pick us up some nibblies for the road and do our weekly fruit shopping (An event I most enjoy because a large quantity of said fruit works its way into my belly which is most satisfying!)

We’d bought most everything we could when Ursh went off and brought back a large melon. “We’ll put it in the backpack!” she said confidently.
Now any other time I would have realized that a watermelon that big couldn’t possibly be balanced on the back of a scooter easily, but sadly a deadly mix of half hopeful optimism and half blatant greed won out and the thought was refiled for use another day.

We put everything else in the scooter’s small boot, and popped the watermelon in the backpack. (Well squeezed, yanked and shoved it in really…)
When I put the backpack on I realized suddenly that this wasn’t one of our best ideas ever… It was heavy! I’m talking HEAVY heavy! My back bent back at such an alarming degree that Yoga fanatics the world over succumbed to bitter envy!
And I was supposed to sit on a bike with this thing?

Somehow we managed to get on the bike. I found I could lean the watermelon against the back seat so that it took some weight off my back. It also meant that I was tilted at an alarming (Or amusing if you were an on-looker) angle!
“Are you ready?” asked Ursh.
And before I could reply anything more then *whimper*, we were off!

Now we live about 15 minutes from that fruit shop. 15 of the longest minutes that god has ever made!! I mean sure it was a new and interesting experience, being pinned to a scooter seat by a large watermelon at an angle that allowed me to contemplate heaven all the more, but the whole, “I’m going to die, I’m going to die!” Bit sort of ruined any meditative benefits I could have received.

To be fair Ursh wasn’t doing so hot either. My arms about her waist were extremely tight, at an odd angle and pretty much slowly crushing the life out of her as she tried to find new ways to breathe without using her lungs.

Somehow we made it to the top of the driveway, tilting alarmingly to the right on our last turn. Ursh leapt off the bike and asked me to get off. This earned her a very black look and a reminder that I couldn’t move!!
We managed to get the back pack off and the relief I felt then? Oh my goodness, it felt like I had a whole new lease on life, that I was light and fluffy and free, that I should share this wonderful feeling, maybe write a self help book, anything to express my new found joy!

“Hey look the bag fits by my feet” said Ursh, showing me the backpack placed at the foot of the scooter where she’d put it down. “I can keep it there no problem while we go down the driveway!”

We both looked at the bulging bag snuggled happily by the foot of the scooter.
There was an awkward silence as we realized the suffering that could have been prevented if we’d tried that earlier. We sheepishly puttered down the drive way, a new lesson learned.

Well one good thing came out of all of this - the melon itself really was delicious!!

^_^